Spring Vs. Spring

I guess spring has come to Kentucky?  I end the sentence with a question mark because I was walking the dogs last week & it snowed on me.  It was too warm for the snow to stick to the ground.  But there were fat snowflakes in the air, hitting me in the face.  It was surreal.

I grew up in Texas, where spring was short & sweet.  Texas is a summer state, & it's always impatient to get the long, hot summer started goddammit!  In Austin, where I spent most of my adult life (so far), some time around the middle of March, we'd have two or (hopefully) three weeks of the most gloriously springlike weather in the universe.  Windows open.  Lying in the grass, reading or sleeping.  Walking home as the night turned a little chilly.  That, & the moment when the summer breaks & autumn begins, is a great reason to live in Austin.

Of course, the same is true here: people in Lexington love the summer because the winter can be so horrible.  When the temperature gets above eighty degrees, Lexingtonians luxuriate in it because they remember when the temperature was eight degrees.  & there was a foot of snow on the ground.  & they were planning a murder as the only cure to their cabin fever.

It's like the seasons are constantly fucking with us.

The high tomorrow (it says) will be 70.  The low Friday will be 39.  & this will be the range of temperatures for several weeks.  Last year I don't believe the summer began until maybe June.  Which is how it's supposed to be, right?  In Austin I used to play this game called "Can I Make It To May Without Turning On The Air Conditioner?"  There were some sweaty moments.  & usually I lost.

What would it be like in a place without seasons, like southern California?  I hear people from there complain about it all the time, how they need to travel to the Northeast (sometime that's where they grew up) to be reminded of leaves changing color & dangerous wind chills.  Austin would have some bitterly cold days but winter would be over in late February most of the time.  Here, in late February, we got a foot & a half of snow.

Maybe I'm skeptical.  The trees here have been hesitating with their sprouting of new leaves.  Like me, they've been tricked too many times before.

However, I do predict, with the utmost ignorant confidence, that it will be a glorious spring.  & I'll probably not notice until it's well underway.